ADDITIVES | POLYAMIDES
Above: Electric vehicle parts may need to meet the same fire standards as home appliances
according to the company’s studies. The concept of bio-based polymers is becoming fairly well established; now additive suppliers are turning their attention to more sustainable prod- ucts. Clariant’s Vita range of additives are based on non-food competing rice bran wax feedstocks. They are designated as products from natural origin with at least 98% renewable content – meaning a 0.98 renewable carbon index (RCI). Licocare RBW 360 TP Vita, for example, is a multifunctional additive suitable for lubrication and nucleation in polyamides and other engineering plastics, so providing potential cycle time reduction opportunities. The company’s new EcoTain-labelled dispersing
agent, Ceridust 1060 Vita, which is also based on rice bran wax, is said to improve pigment disper- sion in plastic parts made with PA and other polar engineering thermoplastics.
Automotive moves
In addition to the drive for sustainability, technology trends in the automotive market are also affecting polyamide additives. Ongoing changes in automo- tive technology — such as the move to electric power trains — will lead to higher requirements in terms of flame retardancy, thermal conductivity, and shielding from electromagnetic interference (EMI), according to Tamim Sadiki, Global Marketing Director for DSM Engineering Plastics. EMI shielding is independent of the polymer
Right:
Bruggemann’s Bruggolen TP-P1810 dramatically improves flow in semi-aromat- ic PA grades
matrix and depends only on the additive type, its amount, and its alignment in the polymer, says Sadiki. However, although the polymer type does not affect EMI function, the interface between the polymer and additive does have a major effect on the mechanical strength of the compound, he adds. While flame retardancy requirements in passen- ger cars are not as stringent today as some other areas of transportation (notably railways and aircraft), the car of the future will be different, resulting in more use of flame retardants, predicts
56 COMPOUNDING WORLD | February 2020
Sadiki. “With the move towards electrification in combination with high voltage charging, people will increasingly charge their cars in the garage at home, typically overnight. A car should be treated similarly to an unattended appliance product, which needs to meet UL94-V0 requirements. My expectation is that all parts which are in the high voltage charging path of an electrical car will change to UL94-V0 in the future.” He acknowledges that the drawbacks of such a change would be the potential for increased cost and weight and more challenges to mechanical performance. “The industry will need to find a balance between economics of design and safety/ reliability aspects. My bet is that safety will win,” Sadiki says.
Lightening up Increasingly stringent carbon dioxide emission standards and the introduction of electrical drives and heavy batteries are driving further lightweighting moves, which will be met by switching from metals to plastics or by making current plastic components even lighter, according to Dr Klaus Bergmann, Head of Polymer Additives at Brüggemann. “High performance flow enhancers and heat stabilisers are paving the way for aliphatic polyamides achieving these high demands in applications that were previously reserved for metals and special resins such as PA46 or polyphthalamides,” he says. A new flow enhancer from the company, Bruggolen TP-P1810, is designed for semi-aromatic polyamides while Bruggolen TP-P1507 is already used for aliphatic polyamides, including PA6, PA66 and PA12. Supplied in pellet form for dosing during compounding or injection moulding, the additives are claimed to improve melt flow while retaining mechanical properties in finished components. In trials carried out for Brüggemann by independent process and testing specialist RJG Technologies, TP-P1810 was found to enable a greater than 20% cycle time reduction during moulding. Spiral flow of a semi-aromatic polyamide
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